We had heard a group of people (some with connections to the San Diego running community, e.g. Sundlun; some with ties to Foot Locker, e.g. Torres) were organizing to try to save the race.
What do you think about pressuring Foot Locker to turn over the IP of the race to this group? If Foot Locker really cares about the greater running world, it should want this legacy of the sport to be preserved. If the new group can't pull it off - RIP.
This thing could easily be a celebration of running in the US every year, culminating with the high school race. Sundlun has great experience founding the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathons. He’s also good at getting sponsors (he was in charge of the World Road Running Champs, which got canceled, but he had secured a multi-million-dollar sponsor - very rare in our sport). HOKA was a good sponsor recently.
Or even say "this will be the last one ever." I'd turn up for the first time, just for the history.
